Leon

surname · Spanish · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Leon is a surname, most frequently recorded in Mexico, where it is the 45th most common surname. It appears chiefly in Spanish and English, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: habitational name from Leon, a city in northwestern Spain, named with Latin legio, genitive legionis ‘legion’, a division of the Roman army.

rarermore common
  • ECEcuador1 in 177◐
  • CRCosta Rica1 in 247
  • VEVenezuela1 in 271

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈326K ●

across 16 countries

#280 ●

of 21M surnames

7 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
502 ●

7.9M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 177 ◐

Ecuador

Spellings & scripts●

LeonLatin · Spanish●3.5M records
ᲚევონGeorgian · Georgian●1.8K records
ԼեւոնArmenian · Armenian●198 records
레오Hangul · Korean●44 records
เล้วอนThai · Thai●30 records
ΛεωνGreek · Greek●10 records
ЛеонCyrillic · Tajik●6 records

5 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Leo in US United States, FR France, BR Brazil and 13 more, Levon in PL Poland, Leone in IT Italy and Leao in PT Portugal.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

habitational name from Leon, a city in northwestern Spain, named with Latin legio, genitive legionis ‘legion’, a division of the Roman army. In Roman times the city was the garrison of the 7th Legion, known as the Legio Gemina. The city’s name became reduced from Legion(em) to Leon(em), and in this form developed an unetymological association with the word for ‘lion’, Spanish ledn.

Sources 1

  • Dictionary of American Family Names

Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Leon is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
MX Mexico#451,276,2801.1M rec.—5.7KLeon236
PE Peru#49622,678602K rec.——Leon131
PH Philippines#18498,093381K rec.—listedLeon154
VE Venezuela#46330,627335K rec.——Leon108
CO Colombia#70140,04382K rec.—3Leon180
CL Chile#93115,60319K rec.—762Leon142
EC Ecuador#1095,574△5.2K rec.1 in 17796KLeon93
GB United Kingdom—90,977156K rec.—3.3KLeo219
US United States#32686,3633.3M rec.1 in 3.9K118KLeo502
AU Australia#80383,43289K rec.—3Leo228
ES Spain#6673,175158K rec.1 in 68473KLeon197
CA Canada#60467,26381K rec.—141Leo178

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • Spanish3.5M69%
  • English744K15%
  • French89K2%
  • 77K2%
  • Catalan73K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Spanish3,479,35669%
English743,70215%
French89,3452%
76,5472%
Catalan73,2031%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Leon is also recorded as 9 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Russian given name431K records spelled Leon82 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, United States

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Polish

    Also written Леон, León, Leone, Лявон, Лион

  • a separate surname122K records spelled Leon16 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Ecuador, United Kingdom, Canada

    Also written Léon, Leôn, Leȯn, Leõn, Lēōn

  • Catalan surname77K records spelled Leon11 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Spain, United States, France, Argentina

    Languages: Catalan, Spanish, French

    Also written Lleo, Lleó, Lléo, León, Léon

  • Swedish surname36K records spelled Leon18 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Denmark, Peru, Norway

    Languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian

    Also written Léon, León, Lèon, Lëon, Ĺēöņ

  • Swahili surname24K records spelled Leon4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Philippines, United States, Peru, Spain

    Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho

    Also written Léon, León

  • Lao surname17K records spelled Leon74 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Laos, Thailand, United States, Philippines

    Languages: Lao, Thai

    Also written Leone, Loan, Leòn, ลีออน, Leony

  • Finnish surname16K records spelled Leon6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Philippines, Spain, Finland

    Languages: Finnish, Estonian

    Also written León, Léon, Leön, Leòn

  • Albanian given name6.9K records spelled Leon13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Albania, United States, Italy, Spain

    Also written Leo, Léon, Léo, León, Ĺěô

  • Turkish surname5.4K records spelled Leon9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Spain, Philippines, Türkiye

    Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani

    Also written León, Léon, Leòn, Lèòn

90 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Leon is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • nickname for a fierce or brave warrior, from ledn ‘lion’.

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • $ From Late Latin. See }Leo in main dictionary. Leonardo $ Germanic. See }Leonard in main dictionary.

    as a nameA concise dictionary of first names

  • In English, A male given name from Latin or Ancient Greek.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Swedish, Leon är en fransk och spansk form av → Leo. I äldre tid var det också en smekform till → Leonard (och möjligen → Napoleon). Det har varit ett populärt namn de senaste årtiondena. I den finlandssvenska almanackan 28 september.

    as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

  • In English, I. town, Mexico; pers. name, Spanish

    as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

01K2K3K1900195020002.7K · 1924

Show as table
Leon in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1880–2025
Yearrecords
1880118
1881121
1882131
1883140
1884150
1885146
1886142
1887147
1888196
1889184
1890197
1891150
1892187
1893211
1894236
1895219
1896235
1897229
1898251
1899188
1900310
1901208
1902248
1903287
1904241
1905274
1906263
1907324
1908327
1909377
1910435
1911540
19121,006
19131,160
19141,414
19151,977
19161,954
19172,102
19182,442
19192,250
19202,554
19212,616
19222,521
19232,528
19242,677
19252,636
19262,647
19272,602
19282,460
19292,336
19302,401
19312,245
19322,295
19332,187
19342,306
19352,282
19362,282
19372,325
19382,355
19392,327
19402,318
19412,375
19422,550
19432,451
19442,151
19452,098
19462,339
19472,487
19482,384
19492,425
19502,427
19512,366
19522,377
19532,273
19542,146
19552,141
19562,043
19571,888
19581,932
19591,748
19601,647
19611,558
19621,542
19631,477
19641,482
19651,263
19661,308
19671,198
19681,197
19691,151
19701,222
19711,040
19721,024
19731,008
1974973
1975884
1976924
1977948
1978924
1979907
1980904
1981869
1982874
1983784
1984797
1985727
1986688
1987662
1988675
1989647
1990594
1991581
1992591
1993531
1994544
1995503
1996473
1997436
1998460
1999463
2000457
2001469
2002472
2003495
2004462
2005470
2006517
2007543
2008549
2009628
2010669
2011696
2012859
20131,021
20141,081
20151,140
20161,313
20171,518
20181,605
20191,866
20201,924
20212,198
20222,374
20232,459
20242,572
20252,583

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

190019201940196019802000Abraham Leon, b. 1918Donna Leon, b. 1942Valerie Leon, b. 1943Lou Leon Guerrero, b. 1950Kenny Leon, b. 1956Tony Leon, b. 1956Carlos Leon, b. 1966John Paul Leon, b. 1972Faith Leon, b. 1985Lourdes Leon, b. 1996

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 142 sources across 68 countries.

Official registers attesting Leon
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
EC EcuadorINEC — civil registry names202496K#22
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201086K#363
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202086K#362
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202081K#652
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—73K#55
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—73K#55
PL Polanddane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20)202669K#77
PL Polanddane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names)—64K#80
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200062K#483
AR ArgentinaRENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national)—26K—
CR Costa RicaTSE — electoral roll (padrón) names—21K#102
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—17K#274

Reference works 7

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,840 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Leon?
We estimate roughly 326 thousand people bear Leon (counting its spellings and scripts) across 16 countries in our records.
In which country does Leon have the most bearers?
Leon is most frequently recorded in Mexico, where it is most often spelled leon.
Where is Leon most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Leon is densest in Ecuador — about 1 in 177 people — even though Mexico holds more of our records for it.
How common is Leon compared with other names?
In Mexico, Leon is the 45th most common surname of 198,716 surnames recorded there.
What does the name Leon mean?
Recorded meaning: habitational name from Leon, a city in northwestern Spain, named with Latin legio, genitive legionis ‘legion’, a division of the Roman army.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/leon

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Leon” — the 45th most common surname in Mexico. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Leon parses inside a full name →